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Magazine Family Loses Home In Fire

A fire destroyed a home in Magazine early Thursday morning, leaving a family in need of supplies and a place to stay.

Firefighters responded to a house fire in the 100 block of West Priddy Street in Magazine at 4:42 a.m. Thursday, according to an official at the Driggs Fire Department dispatch. All 11 members of the Schmitt family in the house at the time of the fire escaped without injury, but the house was destroyed.

Firefighters with the Driggs Fire Department, along with the Magazine Volunteer Fire Department, Booneville Rural Fire Department and the Blue Mountain Rural Fire Department responded, as well as emergency personnel with the Logan County chapter of the Red Cross, the dispatcher said.

One member of the family of 12 was out of the house at the time of the fire, with family members ranging in age from 3 months to 79 years old, Magazine Volunteer Fire Chief Don Dickens said.

The cause of the fire was not initially clear, Dickens said.

“There will be some type of investigation on it; usually insurance companies require that,” Dickens said. “The house was a total loss, so you really have a hard time trying to determine what happened and why.”

Dickens said firefighters had difficulty getting to the home, as winter weather pummeled the area with thick snow and slick road conditions.

“Mother Nature, she’s kind of hard to deal with sometimes,” Dickens said. “It was rough on the equipment, rough on the trucks, rough on the people. Thank God everybody came out of the house OK.”

Once firefighters arrived, it took until about 8:30 a.m. to get the flames under control, Dickens said. Flare-ups caused firefighters to return to the home around mid-afternoon, according to the dispatcher.

The fire was contained to the house, and snow on the ground prevented the flames from spreading farther, Dickens said.

“It’s a sad situation, and a bad time of the year. A horrible time for sure,” Dickens said.

Almost immediately, members of the community rallied behind the family to gather supplies such as food, clothing and heaters, Magazine Police Chief Boyd Hicks said. Several members of the home stayed with nearby relatives.

Several people reached out to the family via Facebook, including Hicks, who posted on the police department’s page that the family was in need of two gas heaters.

“They had a mobile home across the street from their home that burned that they’ve been renting out. It’s empty now, and they were going utilize it, but they needed a couple heaters for it,” Hicks said. “Within 30 minutes of posting that, I got two calls and went and picked up two heaters I took to them.”

Police also gathered food and other supplies that they delivered to the family, Hicks said. The family also received vouchers from the Red Cross for food, supplies and lodging.

“There’ve been a lot of people taking kids’ clothes and baby diapers and stuff like that to them,” Hicks said.

Lanney King, a resident of the area for nine years and friend of the family, was one of the people who helped gather items.

Alexis Powell, a cousin of the Schmitt family, said the primary focus was on the three infants, aged 3 months, 1 year and 2 years old.

“There have been tons of people we’ve been in touch with,” Powell said. “We’ve gotten some clothes, and as a family we’ve pulled together what we can to try to get the babies stuff, because they were the first thing we all thought about.”

The cause of the fire appeared to be electrical, Powell said.

“The breaker box was just glowing with fire, like it was completely on fire,” Powell said. “It all just kept escalating up into the house.”